Date Movie/Shallow Hal (2001)

DATE MOVIE: Continuing in the vein of their wildly successful SCARY MOVIE series, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer turn their comedic minds to the romantic comedy genre, resulting in DATE MOVIE, yet another rapid-fire assault of send-ups of both recent and classic film moments, utilizing MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING as the framework on which all the other jokes hang. Alyson Hannigan (AMERICAN PIE) is Julia Jones, the obese daughter of a not-so Greek family. Upon meeting Grant Funkyerdoder (Adam Campbell)--a suave British customer at the diner owned by her hummus-obsessed father (Eddie Griffin)--Julia decides to get massive liposuction in an auto garage (in a sequence based on MTV's PIMP MY RIDE) to make herself more attractive to him. But this, as we know, is all merely a setup for a nonstop barrage of gags based on films such as HITCH, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, MEET THE PARENTS/FOCKERS, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, THE WEDDING PLANNER, and more.Story is secondary in DATE MOVIE, a direct descendent of the AIRPLANE and NAKED GUN films. What matters are the gags, and they come fast and furious. If one joke doesn't work for you, there's always another one just around the corner. Friedberg and Seltzer know their audience, and they make the most of their PG-13 rating--crudity abounds, with jokes about bodily functions figuring heavily in the mix. In her first leading role, Hannigan makes an appealing heroine (even in the fat suit she wears for for the first quarter of the film), and Fred Willard and Jennifer Coolidge, in an extended riff on Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand's FOCKER roles, add some class to the proceedings. SHALLOW HAL: Directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly continue their string of hilarious oddball comedies with SHALLOW HAL. Hal (Jack Black of HIGH FIDELITY) is a "regular guy" who has no luck with women because he only wants to be with women who look like supermodels. Then self-help guru Tony Robbins hypnotizes Hal so that he can see a woman's inner beauty. When Hal meets Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), a Peace Corps volunteer who is smart and funny, he thinks his dreams have come true. Others, like Hal's slimy friend Mauricio (Jason Alexander), see Rosie for what she is, a 300-pound woman, but Hal can only see the beauty on the inside, so to him she looks like Gwyneth Paltrow.Black shines in his first starring role. His engagingly manic energy keeps the film in high gear. Paltrow skillfully plays Rosemary as an obese woman in a thin woman's body. The Farrelly brothers' comedies work so well because they mix off-the-wall humor with characters the audience identifies with and cares about. SHALLOW HAL is outrageous and funny, occasionally exceeding the bounds of good taste, but it's also a touching love story. Fans of Black's band, Tenacious D, will be happy to see bandmate Kyle Gass in a small role.